Senators Lose 5-2 to Bruins

In a game nobody really thought would be all that close, the Senators gave the Bruins a good go for the first 40 minutes of this evening’s game. Even though they were trailing 2-1 after 2, the Senators were dictating play, having no trouble creating offence and keeping the pressure on the Bruins defence. The difference was Tim Thomas, who led the game off with a “sliding across the crease” save on Colin Greening and kept it going from there. Thomas made 26 saves in the first 2 periods, and then added another 21 in the third to boot.

That third period is where the wheels fell off for the Senators. A costly turnover on a missed pass from Daniel Alfredsson to Erik Karlsson resulted in a breakaway goal for Patrice Bergeron to put the Bruins up by 2. That was quickly followed up by a gorgeous pass from Shawn Thornton that sent Daniel Paille in alone on Craig Anderson and just like that it was 4-1. Jason Spezza & Paille would swap goals late in the frame and the Bruins went on to a 5-2 victory.

A couple of noteworthy plays occurred during this game. In the first, Milan Lucic & Matt Carkner squared off in what can be described as an even tilt. It was Carkner’s first fighting major since returning from knee surgery. In the second, Bruins defenceman Adam McQuaid laid a knee on quad hit on Nick Foligno that sent the Senators forward down to the ice. Foligno would go to the locker room but return shortly thereafter. McQuaid was given a 5:00 minute kneeing major and a game misconduct. Here’s the play and what both players had to say about the incident.